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Steve Dzubay

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Steve Dzubay has been publisher at the River Falls Journal and Hudson Star Observer from 1995-2016. He holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He previously worked as a reporter-photographer at small daily newspapers in Minnesota and is past editor of the Pierce County Herald and River Falls Journal.

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Senator advocates curbs on employer creeping into Facebook, other social media; abortion rate falls again; 14 more state stories MADISON -- A state senator says employers snooping into personal Facebook accounts is not a big problem in Wisconsin – but there’s still a need to regulate it. West Bend Republican Glenn Grothman is one of the main sponsors of a bill to prohibit the practice, except when employers need to investigate improper transmissions of confidential data.

GREEN BAY -- The Bay of Green Bay has a growing “dead zone” where virtually all fish, worms, and insects cannot survive because there’s not enough oxygen in the water. In a public Web seminar Thursday, Tracy Valenta of the Green Bay Metro Sewerage District said the dead zone starts about eight miles northeast of the city – and it can go for up to 30 miles from there. Wave and weather patterns are blamed, along with phosphorus runoff from the Fox River which feeds into the bay.

MADISON – Emerald ash borer has been found in the city of Superior, the most northern location in Wisconsin to date. Douglas County, where Superior is located, will be quarantined. "While it's disappointing to have found EAB in a new location so far from other infestations, and in close proximity to our North Woods, it is not surprising, given the ease with which this pest can hitchhike with the help of humans," said Brian Kuhn, director of the Bureau of Plant Industry in the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Both sides of mining issue to be heard today' HURLEY -- All sides in Wisconsin’s mining debate plan were expected to be heard Thursday at a 10-hour public hearing on the next phase of preliminary work for a new mine near Lake Superior. A parade of witnesses is expected at a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hearing on Gogebic Taconite’s plans to sample 8 million pounds of rock from its proposed iron ore mining site in Ashland and Iron counties. The hearing runs from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. at Hurley High School. The DNR is also taking written comments on the matter until Sept. 3rd.

Baldwin urges federal help to incent researchers; MADISON -- U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin says America is in danger of losing its next generation of scientists, unless the federal government does something. The Wisconsin Democrat met Tuesday with students and officials at medical school research facilities in Madison and Milwaukee.

West Nile cases expected to surface soon; MILWAUKEE -- A health official expects the Milwaukee area to start getting human cases of the West Nile Virus in the next week or two. Paul Biedrzycki of the Milwaukee Health Department says the probability of human cases has just gone up, after mosquitoes in three traps around the city tested positive for West Nile. As of last week, state officials reported only one human case of the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus this year. That was in Dane County, and the U.S.

Wisconsin’s largest teachers’ union says it’s making its case at the local level, instead of spending millions to lobby state legislators for what they want. A new state report showed that the WEAC teachers’ union spent just $84,000 to lobby lawmakers during the first six months of this year, when they were acting on the new state budget.

MADISON -- The U-W Board of Regents has started a national search process to replace System President Kevin Reilly, who announced Tuesday that he’ll leave at the end of the year. The 63-year-old Reilly spent nine years in charge of the U-W’s 26 campuses.

Twenty Wisconsin counties are trying a new approach to get extra federal Medicaid funds under the Affordable Care Act. La Crosse County is among those trying to tip-toe around Gov. Scott Walker’s refusal to accept additional Medicaid dollars statewide for recipients of programs like Badger-Care. La Crosse County Supervisor Monica Kruse said her county and the other 19 have asked State Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades to pursue something recently done in Ohio. There, Republican lawmakers rejected Obama-care’s additional Medicaid funds.